Sniffing Airlocks since 2010

Mike B. sent us a link to a page that I've been hoping to find for a very long time. The full chart can be saved below and offers basic guidelines for using many popular specialty grains.Thanks to brewsupplies.com for creating a great chart!

Add the Game of Thrones Distressed House Sigil Pint Glasses to your collection for a shake-up in traditional bar ware. The sigil graphics are roughed up to give them an aged look. The illustrations, as always are outstanding, giving the Game of Thrones Distressed House Pint Glass Set an unexpected quality. The opposite sides of each glass bears the House pledge.

TH over at homebrewtalk created a pneumatic bottle capper which we think must be made of pure awesomeness.

Here's what he had to say about it:

"The air cylinder is a 2" bore spring-return cylinder with a 5/8-18 threaded rod end, which is perfect because a standard capper bell screwed right on. On the base I stuck on an "alignment" plate that I made out of lexan to make it easy to align the bottles each time. By the way I only use one size of bottle so I built the capper accordingly. Obviously it wouldn't work for very many other sizes. In the video its running at 100 psi."

Beer clings are great looking, reusable vinyl labels that solve the problem of labeling homebrew bottles.

While printed labels can be nice to add some customization, you just can't beat the ease of quickly applying a vinyl label.

To use them, begin with a clean bottle that is dry and free of any residue.

Place the label on the center of the bottle and rub your thumb or finger from the middle to the outer edge.

We tried the labels on three different sized bottles, a 12oz, 22oz, and 1 liter.

I really like the look on our cobalt blue swingtop bottles!

Finally, place the bottles in the refrigerator to strengthen the label's hold to the bottle. To remove, a fingernail at the label edge will take it right off.

Final thoughtsThese labels are good quality and stay put during normal handling. There were no signs of the label peeling and I also noticed an area of the label designed to write a beer name or style, but didn't have a dry erase marker to give it a try. I assume it would work great judging by the way the material feels.

There are so many of our favorite beers on this list that it's really hard to be upset at the order. I think if we had to make a few changes, it would be to move Sierra Nevada Pale Ale out of the top 10 and add Union Jack. Celebration and Torpedo are both solid top choices, but personally, I would love to see some other styles represented.

I have to give a shout out to Scoundrel's wife and family for throwing a great b-day party for him a while back. They rented out a room at a nice resturaunt and the food, music, and beer were all amazing.

A really nice touch came from his brother who wielded the photoshop skills and came up with 5 or 6 homebrew related posters that were hung around the room. All of them featured the "REAL" most interesting man in the world (who prefers Dos Equis) with Scoundrel's face photoshopped in. The gray hair and beard are classic and he even added some of Scoundrel's homebrew labels right on the bottles!

All of the pictures had great sayings on them but this one by far was my favorite!

Well, for me, it's because I want to refer to the recipes I create and it's nice to have friends call them by name.

Just like the pro brewers, we can come up with clever, pun-filled, crazy names that make us laugh and give our beer an identity.

A good place to start when naming a beer is to consider it's characteristics. From grain to hop, there are many flavor descriptors we use that can bring names to mind. What ingredients contributed to flavor, color, and smell? Adjuncts like honey, maple syrup, molasses, candy & brown sugar etc. can all help conjure that perfect name.

Often a beer's style can play a role in what name is selected as well. A crisp summer pale ale could have a name that makes us crave the perfect lawnmower brew, perhaps something that sounds earthy or hints at freshly cut grass. A heavy porter brewed for fall might be better suited with a name that signals the vanilla or caramel notes inside.

Before we list a few of ours, I though it would be fun to post some of my favorite commercial beer names.

Mine are all movie-related since we kind of have a cinema drafthouse thing going on.

Raiders of the Lost AlePlanet of the AlesDrunkfellasKung Fu PorterNo Porter for Old MenJurassic Park Amber AleJackie Brown AleSilence of the LambicsDirty Rotten StoutsThe Neverending SessionChicken LagerEternal Buzz of the Drunken MindLord of the HopsAlienationMen in Black IPA